On Thursday night, at his joint press conference with Tony Blair,
President Bush said that the abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib was the
greatest mistake the U.S. has made in the war of Iraq: "I think the
biggest mistake that's happened so far, at least from our country's
involvement, is Abu Ghraib. We've been paying for that for a long
period of time."

The emerging Haditha scandal may come to eclipse that. As first
reported by TIME back in March, there is increasing evidence that a
small number of Marines carried out unlawful and unwarranted killings
of civilians in Western Iraq, including the Sunni-majority city of
Haditha. On Friday, the New York Times reported that preliminary
results of a military inquiry showed that the civilians killed in the
city last November had not died from a makeshift bomb, as the Pentagon
had initially stated, nor in a crossfire with insurgents, as was later
announced. One of the most damning pieces of evidence investigators have in their possession, according to a U.S. military source in Iraq, are personal photos, taken immediately after the killings, by a marine who emailed a snapshot back to a friend in the U.S.

The Marines have refused to comment on the specifics of the
investigation, but on Saturday a Public Affairs Officer gave TIME's
Sally B. Donnelly their first official statement related to the Haditha
controversy:

"The recent serious allegations concerning the actions of Marines
in combat have caused serious concern at the highest levels of the
Marine Corps. As the Commandant has written, those allegations should
concern all Marines. That said, the investigations are on-going,
therefore any further comment at this time would be inappropriate. All
Marines are trained in the Law of Armed Conflict and our core values of
honor, courage and commitment. We take allegations of wrong-doing by
Marines very seriously and are committed to thoroughly investigating
such allegations. We also pride ourselves on holding our Marines to the
highest levels of accountability and standards. The Marines in Iraq
are focused on their mission. They are working hard on doing the right
thing in a complex and dangerous environment. It is important to
remember that the vast majority of Marines today perform magnificently
on and off the battlefield. Tens of thousands have served honorably
and with courage in Iraq and Afghanistan."

The Haditha episode took place last Nov. 19, after a roadside bomb
blew up a Marine humvee, killing Lance Corporal Miguel (T.J.) Terrazas,
20, from El Paso, Texas. According to numerous witnesses, some of
Terrazas' fellow Marines went on a rampage after the killing,
slaughtering civilians, including women and children. In January, the
Pentagon began an investigation; a second probe into whether there was
a cover up of the alleged massacre is also underway. In recent days,
Marine Corps Commandant Michael Hagee, has flown to Iraq to deliver
speeches to troops reemphasizing that they must adhere to international
law.

The possibility of a U.S. massacre of Iraqi civilians could have major ramifications. It could further diminish support for the United States through the Arab and Muslim world, where America is already held in notoriously low regard. And the massacre could accelerate American opinion against the war. During the Vietnam War, the My Lai massacre [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,901621,00.html] of what may have been as many as hundreds of South Vietnamese civilians helped turn the tide against the war. In that case, initial Pentagon reports similarly dismissed the possibility of a civilian massacre.

Although the numbers of dead in Haditha come nowhere near My Lai,
in an era of instant communications, the impact for the United States
could be far worse. And given that the revelations of the possible
massacre comes as Saddam Hussein is standing trial for ordering the
massacre of Shi'ites when he was leader of Iraq, the timing couldn't be
much worse.

In the original version of this story, TIME reported that "one of the most damning pieces of evidence investigators have in their possession, John Sifton of Human Rights Watch told Time's Tim McGirk, is a photo, taken by a Marine with his cell phone that shows Iraqis kneeling — and thus posing no threat — before they were shot." While Sifton did tell TIME that there was photographic evidence, taken by Marines, he had only heard about the specific content of the photos from reports done by NBC, and had no firsthand knowledge. TIME regrets the error.